i too read linehan's book and it was lifesaving for me. i ended up doing the course formally - but what kept me dropping out of the dreaded group therapy was reading the manual... reading the manual...

Linehan is terrific. absolutely %#@&#! amazing. finally... a theorist who presents things in such a way that there IS hope and where i'm not blamed or judged or condemned for my distress. bravo.

i also read a lot of stuff on "self psychology". stuff available from the trauma pages (I think I posted a link to them in the 'resources' thread pinned to the top of the forum). there are lots of articles available from there that talk about therapy with people who have had relational trauma (which we have had). non-judgemental and hopeful. helps me a great deal.

hang in there. it DOES get better. just like the pantene commercial (except ACTUALLY true) 'it won't happen overnight - but it will happen'.